Name: Rye Bread with Baking Powder
Ingredients: 2 cups rye flour; ½ cup cornmeal; ½ cup all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 tablespoon lard; nearly 1 pint milk

Why it works: Rye and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rye Bread with Baking Powder

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

Sift together the rye flour, cornmeal, all-purpose flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.
Rub in the cold lard until well combined.
Add the milk and mix into a smooth batter, similar to cake batter.

Bake

Pour the batter into a well-greased baking tin.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes, covering with paper for the first 15 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,320 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together918 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rye flour: Provides the bread's main structure and a dense, earthy flavour.
Cornmeal: Adds a coarse, slightly gritty texture and a mild sweet corn flavour.
All-purpose flour: Adds gluten-forming structure that gives the loaf more lift and a lighter crumb.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the bread rises in the oven.
Lard: Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and keeps it moist.
Milk: Hydrates the flours and turns the mix into a batter that sets as it bakes.

The step that matters

Covering with paper for the first 15 minutes. Covering the top early slows browning while the baking powder raises the batter and the crumb sets. Uncovered from the start, the crust can darken too fast before the centre is cooked through.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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Rye Bread with Baking Powder